Ten Attendants

The Ten Attendants (also known as the Ten Eunuchs) (Traditional Chinese: 十常侍, pinyin: shí chángshì) were a group of eunuchs from the Eunuch Faction of the Han Imperial Court in China. They wielded strong power at the court.

In 189, the Ten Attendants used widowed Empresses and support from Emperors to rise to a position of power. When the Emperor Han Ling Di died, the eunuchs, without a military power base of their own, relied on the support of Empress Dowager He and He Miao. Yuan Shao sent Zhang Jin to advise He Jin, who was Empress He's brother. Zhang Jin argued that the Yellow Gates (palace guard) and Ten Attendants had usurped power and that the Empress Dowager He was corrupt and interloped with them. He urged He Jin to destroy this source of trouble. He Jin agreed and began conspiring with Yuan Shao. Yuan Shao further advised He Jin to summon the frontier general Dong Zhuo and various warlords to the capital to threaten the Empress Dowager, which he did. Sensing an impending threat to their lives, the Ten Attendants and Yellow Gates both came to apologize to He Jin for their "misdeeds."

Yuan Shao advised He Jin to take this opportunity to dispose of the eunuchs but He Jin rejected this advice. Subsequently, He Jin appointed Yuan Shao to govern the martial and civil officials of Luoyang and investigate the dealings of the eunuchs in the capital. Yuan Shu was ordered to select two hundred good-natured ‘Rapid as Tigers’ (Hu Ben) officers to replace the arms-bearing ‘Yellow Gates’ eunuch guards in the Forbidden Palace.

Finally, in the ninth month of that year He Jin requested the Empress Dowager to execute the eunuchs. The conversation was overheard and relayed to Zhang Rang, the head eunuch following the death of Jian Shuo. Not long after, Duan Gui (the eunuch holding the appointment of Zhong Chang Shi), influential members Zhang Rang and Zhao Zhong, and some other eunuchs used a forged decree from the Empress Dowager to lure He Jin to meet them. They beheaded He Jin in the palace garden. As a result, the palace was thrown into disorder.

Dou Wu, who in the past had planned to put them to death, was assassinated himself. This was due to word having leaked out from officers of the five regiments of the Northern Army, the professional standing army normally stationed at the capital.

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